August 1, 2011

View of the day-Al picks up Casey on the go in his latest ride...air conditioned comfort and smooth shifting.

We had a knock at the door this morning as Lloyd Everett stopped by to let us know about some potential oats for picking up if we were interested. Al decided to wait and see how the wheat went before committing...and it is a 30 mile move.

Marilyn was still wrestling with her sewing machine and was just about to get the pliers out, when there was another knock at the door, Danny came by to let us know he did a test and it was 13.5% moisture...holy crap...we were going to get to combine today! We got organized, grabbed some lunch, then headed north to the field.

Casey was already making dust by the time we got out there, so Marilyn got in the combine and moved it from the yard to the field. It was cutting alot better than the last time we were out and things were going quite smoothly until Marilyn noticed the humidity going up in the cab...great...the air conditioning had quit and the feels like temperature was only 106º.

Al called Ray at ProHarvest and he suggested a couple of things to look at...which Marilyn gladly did...nothing worked, so Al called the AC man he had talked to yesterday. He told him he wouldn't be able to make it out today and since there were dark clouds and weather warnings across the river to the west, Marilyn did what she had to do and continued combining...with the fans at maximum.

Every once in a while, just to change out the air, she would park strategically so the wind would blow across from the two open doors, then it would be back to combining. As the clouds started to work their way over she was hoping that would help matters...it didn't...shut up and drive...and she did until the winter wheat was finally finished. An 80 acre day with 60 of those acres without A/C.

We got back to the yard with the combine, then took a drive over to see how close the spring wheat was...it could go tomorrow...so we were done for the day. Marilyn figured she shouldn't have to cook and that we should go out for supper, so we decided to go to the VFW when we got to town...only to find out they aren't open on Mondays...Hot Pockets and cereal for supper.

After supper there was another knock at the door and Danny's wife Bev showed up with some freshly dug new potatoes and onions...can't wait for the roast beef and onion sandwiches for lunch. Well have to make sure the A/C is working in the cab, though, it could get pretty high in there.

Marilyn tackled the sewing machine again...she figured she knew what the problem was...the stitches in the combine were too small on the design, so she used a different one that she had created and took that one for a test run. Success. It worked like a dream. Now there is some fixing to do on the other one to get it too work.

But not until the combining is done...